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Oberlandsteig near Ingolstadt

VanSims17. 05. 2014 14:59:56

During my Easter wanderings in Bavaria I also visited the interesting via ferrata Oberlandsteig near Ingolstadt.

Description in German: http://www.klettersteig.de/klettersteig/oberlandsteig_blau/13

After exiting the A9 motorway towards Nuremberg, I drive for a while through Ingolstadt's suburbs, then the road gradually through suburban settlements turns into a road through beautiful Bavarian countryside, getting narrower with each turnoff I took. The villages were getting sparser too. Finally I arrive at Aicha, from there another kilometer or two to the starting point. It looked remote, somewhere in Bavarian hills but the parking lot was full of cars. The path is hard to describe. Without Garmin I wouldn't have found it. The upper portal describes another path that might be easier.

At the parking lot I gear up and go. Ahead of me I see the local climbing area and climbers. The access to the ferrata is intentionally marked to lead through two rock jumps (selection of the weaker ones). Both can be avoided, as I saw later. The first is right after the path start if following the signs, about I, the second after the split of the red (easier, also descent) and blue (harder) path, right after the viewpoint. Anyone who wants to take the blue path must therefore tackle yet another rock jump (up to -II). The protections don't start right away, but easier climbing (-I) and hiking take place through the forest without them. This part reminded me somewhat of the Little Prince path around Beli Kuk. Occasionally the blue and red paths approach and here's the trick how to bypass the second harder rock jump: first along the red and then hop to the blue mežikanje

When I reach the protections, the path goes down a bit, then the traverse starts. Actually the whole ferrata is one exposed traverse partly above the local climbing area. The difficulty on the upper portal greatly exaggerates: it's only about A/B. Not for the vertigo-prone. Markings are newly renovated so the path is easy to follow.

Back I went via the red one, which is regular hiking with two holds (A/B). Actually we can also go in reverse: first the red, then back on the blue. A traverse is a traverse, we just need to know how to avoid the rock jump downhill if we're not skilled at it.

So I reach the path split at the viewpoint again and climb up to it (short -I). The view of the Bavarian hills, i.e., Altmühltal as that area is called, is gorgeous. Then back to the parking lot and I notice a shortcut directly to it. Well, and that's the path by which we can also avoid the first rock jump. The path is just routed around to make it more interesting and to eliminate any unprepared ones right at the start.